


The Moon Shines Merry and Bright

by adadshi



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, Established Adam/Shiro (Voltron), First Christmas, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Orphan Keith (Voltron), Pre-Canon, Pre-Kerberos Mission, They/Them Pronouns for Adam (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:41:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28326999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adadshi/pseuds/adadshi
Summary: When Adam arrived back at their Garrison quarters, they found Shiro lying floppily on the couch with his forearm covering his eyes. Adam settled their bag down on the floor before kneeling to peel his forearm away.“Everything alright?” They asked. Shiro slowly sat up and looked at Adam miserably.“Adam, we need to adopt a kid.”“We- we do?”-Weeks before Christmas, Shiro and Adam set their sights on adopting a boy who is obsessed with the moon.
Relationships: Adam & Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Adam & Keith (Voltron), Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 110





	The Moon Shines Merry and Bright

Shiro only accepted the task of visiting the orphanage begrudgingly: who wanted to spend a fine December day in one of the most depressing places possible? As the highest-ranking junior officer, it was his duty to visit local schools, scout troops and churches to tell the children about the fantastic futures they could have at the Galaxy Garrison. He enjoyed the job and felt obliged to accept every opportunity to do it- after all, Shiro himself would have never applied for the Garrison if a recruiter hadn’t been sent to his elementary school in Sacramento. But an orphanage? The thought depressed him. 

While driving there, he considered turning around and heading home to Adam, where he would make some false claim down the phone to Iverson about the snow being too bad to drive in. To say that he was rapidly slipping into Christmas relaxation and laziness would be an understatement. All Shiro wanted to do was curl up by the fire with his partner, sip hot cocoa and wait for Christmas Day to come. He already had his bags packed to head home. As the winter break slowly crept up on them, the Garrison was becoming emptier as students and staff left to go home for the holidays. There was very little point in teaching cadets new material, so the few that remained spent school time putting up decorations and watching movies.

The cadets were allowed to slack off but Shiro was not. So he drove through the mucky brown snow to the orphanage, focusing on the jolly radio tunes and trying to mentally prepare himself for this. 

Shiro had been to space, had etched his name onto the surface of the moon, had done so many brave, extraordinary things, but had never visited an orphanage. He’d never even seen one outside of movies. They were always depicted as dismal places, where children never stopped crying and babies grew up unloved. And sometimes they seemed so evil. The classic image of a tall, gothic castle that always seemed to be caught in the thunderstorm entered Shiro’s mind. It made him shiver. 

But Saint Philomena’s looked remarkably ordinary to Shiro. It was a rectangular building, made of red bricks, that sat on the top of a small, snowy hill. At the foot of the hill, there were thick trees with rope looped over their branches and knotted at the bottom to be makeshift swings. As Shiro pulled up into the driveway, chickens scuttled out of his way and ran back into their coop. 

Inside it smelled of ginger. Shiro breathed it in with a smile. Paper banners lined the walls and barefooted children raced around adults. At the end of the hallway, there was a spiral staircase that had tinsel coiled around the bannister like a sparkly snake. Some older children slid down the bannister and jumped onto a beanbag when they made it to the end of the line. 

“Mr Shirogane?” A woman appeared in front of him. She wore a striped sweater. She shook his hand, introduced herself as the Suzie he’d spoken to on the phone and led him through the orphanage to a recreation room which had been set up like a classroom. Shiro set out his things and children slowly filed in, taking seats and excitedly murmuring about Santa Claus. 

“Right!” Shiro exclaimed, turning towards the wide-eyed children, “Who wants to learn about space?”

  
  


Not even all the enthusiasm in the world could help Shiro harness the attention of thirty kids when it was so close to Christmas. The lecture ended early and Shiro packed up his things while Suzie apologised profusely. He assured her it was alright, that he understood their lack of interest, but internally he was shocked that not a single kid had shown interest in the moon rock he’d brought. What was cooler than a piece of the moon? 

They were away to write letters to Santa now, Suzie told him. Shiro nodded with a small smile. He remembered writing letters to Santa- asking for a bicycle, a skateboard, or whatnot. He’d walk to the postbox and his parents would lift him to put the envelope through the slot. Then it was home for hot cocoa and present wrapping. 

Lost in the memories, Shiro didn’t notice the little hands reaching out from below the table to rummage in his bag. He was only torn from the trance of nostalgia when he heard a  _ boof _ and then an  _ ow!  _

Shiro leaned forward to look around the side of the desk, where he found a scruffy little boy scrambling over pieces of moon rock. He was panting slightly as he scooped up the two broken chunks and tried to jam them back together. With each heavy breath, rock dust flew away from them and down into the cracks of the flooring.

“Keith!” Suzie cried out, “What have you done? Apologise to Mr Shirogane this instant!” 

“I-I-I-” Keith spluttered. His chest was rising and falling as if he’d just ran a marathon. Shiro looked at him with pity.

“No, there’s no need, it’s alright.” He knelt and picked up the two pieces in his hands. They both weighed about the same, “Did you want to see the moon rock?”

The boy nodded. He kept his head down, not wanting to make eye contact.

Shiro handed him one of the two pieces. 

“You keep that,” He chuckled, “I’m glad at least one of you took interest in it.” 

Keith looked up at Shiro with wide eyes that were almost entirely covered by his shaggy black hair. He had a square bandaid on his forehead and a light coating of dirt on his cheeks. 

“What do you say, Keith? Say thank you to Mr Shirogane.” 

“Thank you, Mr Shirogane.” Keith didn’t look at him, instead, he was focused on his new treasure. He held it up to his face and peered into the pores. It made Shiro smile.

“You can call me Shiro, no need to be so formal. It’s very nice to meet you, Keith.”

Suzie helped Keith to his feet and murmured to him about taking good care of the gift. Shiro followed them as she walked Keith towards the stairs. 

“Put it with your things and come down quickly. You need to write your letter to Santa.”

“Santa already knows what I want.”

“What do you want from Santa, Keith?” Shiro asked. Keith stopped halfway up the stairs and looked at the young woman for permission before replying. 

He quickly said, “A family.” Then he quickly shot up the stairs and out of sight.

Shiro’s heart felt as heavy as the moon rock in his hand.

  
  


When Adam arrived back at their Garrison quarters, they found Shiro lying floppily on the couch with his forearm covering his eyes. Adam settled their bag down on the floor before kneeling to peel his forearm away.

“Everything alright?” They asked. Shiro slowly sat up and looked at Adam miserably. 

“Adam, we need to adopt a kid.” 

“We- we do?” 

Shiro stood up abruptly and started pacing the length of the living room with his arms behind his head. A million thoughts were racing through his head. The halved moon rock was heavy in his blazer pocket. 

“Takashi, you need to let me know what’s going on inside that head of yours.” He felt Adam’s arms go around his waist, anchoring him to one spot, “Did something happen at Saint Philomena’s?”

Shiro sat them down on the couch and explained how he’d met Keith and heard his heartbreaking Christmas wish. While he spoke he tossed the piece of moon rock from hand to hand. If it was distracting Adam didn’t make any attempt to stop him.

At the end, they said, “Let me get this straight- you talked to him once and now you want to adopt him?”

“Yeah,” Shiro said, knowing how pitiful he sounded. “I don’t know Adam, I just have a really good feeling about him. I get we’re only young and we don’t have a lot of money and-“

Adam cut him off with a kiss. Shiro leant into their warm hands and felt the worries in his mind dissolve. 

When they parted, Adam said, “If you feel this strongly about this, we can arrange for a meeting.” 

Shiro kept his eyes shut and nodded. “Thank you.”

Shiro and Adam had been dating since they were cadets and were now aged twenty and twenty-one respectively. Despite this, they’d never spent a Christmas together. Adam always went home to their family in Rotterdam while Shiro and his parents flew back to their ancestral homeland of Japan. They would video call each other and send frequent texts but it was never the same as celebrating the holiday together in person. 

Now that they’d purchased their first house, Shiro was ecstatic to spend his first real Christmas with Adam. December 25th was still some time away but Shiro couldn’t stop himself from slowly decorating the place when they spent their weekends there. After the Garrison officially closed for the winter, the couple would spend four whole weeks in their suburban home. 

The house was perfectly located just outside of the city and was close to the highway that took them to the Garrison in a thirty minute drive. It had a yard of neatly trimmed yet luscious grass and a gorgeous wrap-around porch like Adam always wanted. Shiro had spent a whole afternoon constructing a swinging bench to attach to the porch so they could wake up early and snuggle there with a prime view of the sun rising over the desert plateaus, turning their world golden.

It was the perfect place. It also had an unoccupied bedroom. Shiro pictured the plain room in his mind and all of a sudden-  _ pop! pop! pop! _ Little features were being added to the image. Colourful bed sheets, a road-pattern rug, and dozens of little glow in the dark stars decorating the ceiling. They had the space for a child and Shiro would certainly have time for one thanks to his job at the Garrison only being part-time. Denying Keith when there was little reason to felt wrong.

  
  


True to his word, Adam scheduled a meeting with Keith through the orphanage and his social worker. They arrived at Saint Philomena’s and found him outside of the building chucking snowballs at the building wall. He was wearing wool mittens and a red scarf that blew softly in the wind.

Although they were sure he’d been told about the meeting, Keith still looked shocked to see them. As they approached, he put down a snowball he’d been preparing and reached into his pocket, from which he pulled out his half of the moon rock.

“Hi, Shiro.”

“Nice to see you again, Keith. Have you been carrying that around with you?” Shiro asked amusedly. Working at the Garrison meant he saw a lot of moon rock samples almost daily- sometimes even rocks from other moons- so Keith’s fascination by his simple chunk of rock was endearing. 

“This is my partner Adam.” 

Adam approached Keith and shook his hand. “It’s nice to meet you. Takashi told me about how you met.”

“Takashi?” He looked back at Shiro with squinting eyes. 

“That’s what my family calls me.” 

Keith nodded. “Got it, Shiro.” 

Although Keith sped off energetically, rock back in his pocket and arms spread out wide like wings, there was a glumness in his face and actions that depressed Shiro. He and Adam walked behind the boy, watching him pretend to swoop and dive but with no enthusiasm like he’d played this game a thousand times before.

“On the phone,” Shiro started, “did they tell you how long Keith’s been here?”

Adam hummed and relaxed their head onto Shiro’s shoulder, “Three years. He turned nine this past October.”

“His father passed away on his birthday.” A new coldness stung Shiro’s heart. He felt Adam squeeze his arm. Ahead of them, Keith had stopped to bring out his moon rock and hold it up to the sky. The real moon, massive and round and so, so far away, was faint in the pale blue sky. “The woman on the phone said it was a workplace incident, a very sudden tragedy. But there was no record of Keith existing so no one could tell him what had happened. It was Christmas Day when they found him. He walked from the desert into the town, entranced by the pretty lights.”

Shiro stopped in his tracks and hugged Adam. He needed it. If Keith was scruffy now, what was he like then? A six-year-old wondering with no one to care for him.

He never wanted him to feel so alone ever again. So he bounded through the snow towards Keith, who was still entranced by his rock. 

“Hey, race me to the trees?” Shiro said through heaving breaths. The boy initially looked surprised by the challenge but quickly nodded with determination and shot off with his new friend following close behind. Opting for a peaceful stroll through the snow, Adam cupped their hands around their mouth and shouted commentary of the race.

“They’re neck and neck! It’s so close! Oh, but what’s this? Keith shoots ahead and wins the race! Ladies and gentleman, we have a new racing champion here!”

Keith took a victory lap around the group of trees, laughing as he went, while Shiro caught his breath. When was the last time he ran like that? If they’d ran any further he probably would’ve fainted by now. Adam put a comforting hand on his back and mouthed  _ are you alright? _ to which he nodded. 

The trees were barren of leaves, making them tall and skinny things. Shiro thought the long, naked branches looked like witches' fingers pointing. His gaze followed one finger and it led his eyes to one of the makeshift swings he’d seen before. It was made purely of rope and knotted so thickly at the bottom a child could find space to sit on it.

“Hey, Keith- do you want me to push you?” Shiro asked, pointing towards the swing. The boy looked at it nervously before nodding and clambering up onto the thing.

“Let me take this one,” Adam said with a smile. They helped Keith get comfortable on the swing, took hold of the rope, slowly walked back as far as they could, then let the rope go. Keith swung down into the small ditch below and then up again, high up in the sky. When he came back down again, Adam pushed his back and watched him swing. They did this a few times before stepping back to stand with their partner.

“He’s a nice kid.” 

“Hm, you think so?”

“I’ll talk to his social worker. Maybe we can take him out on a daytrip sometime.” 

Shiro grinned.

  
  


In the weeks leading up to Christmas, they met with Keith a few more times, once with his social worker present. Alice was a small, plump woman who wore cat-eye glasses and sat a few booths away at the restaurant. 

Shiro wanted to order chicken nuggets for himself but out of fear of seeming too immature to be potentially adopting a kid, he opted for a French dish he struggled to pronounce the name of. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alice scribble on her notebook when his order arrived. Whenever she seemed distracted, Shiro swiped nuggets from Keith’s plastic plate. It made the boy laugh and Adam roll their eyes.

At the end of the meal, when they’d all returned to Saint Philomena’s, they listened to Alice’s report. Keith wasn’t allowed to be present and instead sat outside. Shiro offered him his phone, already having many games downloaded onto it, but Keith declined it.

“Got my moon rock.” He said. 

Shiro nodded and smiled fondly. “Yep, you got your rock.”

Alice spoke very highly of the couple and only criticised their decision to give Keith a second serving of dessert. In their defence, Shiro thought Keith was far too skinny and was deserving of extra ice cream. But following Adam’s example, he kept quiet and calm. 

“I think with a few more supervised days out, I would be happy for Shiro and Adam to take Keith home while the adoption papers are prepared.” 

Shiro took Adam’s hand and excitedly squeezed it. He could barely believe this was happening! 

“There will be a lot of papers to sign. The soonest I can get the first batch will be December 24th, you can take Keith home immediately after that. You’ll be signing them, Adam, is that correct?”

Although the idea of adopting Keith was Shiro’s, he was a few months short of meeting the required age to adopt a child. Thankfully Adam had already turned twenty-one and met all the other requirements to become Keith’s legal guardian. Once Shiro was of age, he’d be allowed to sign the papers too. 

“So, should we call Keith in and tell him?” Alice suggested. She was bouncing her legs in an excited manner. 

“Actually,” Suzie started, “I think it would be a good idea for this to stay a surprise. Every year all Keith wants for Christmas is a family. We’ll tell him on Christmas Eve and it’ll be like an early present from Santa.” She winked at Alice who started to gush about the cute idea. 

When Adam and Shiro left the office, Keith was still waiting outside, swinging his feet back and forth. 

“Was it okay?” He asked quickly. He sounded nervous.

“Yeah, it was fine! Although your social worker was critical of the amount of ice cream we gave you.” 

“But it was tasty.” Keith huffed. 

“And compensation for the chicken nuggets you stole.” Adam gave him a gentle nudge to the stomach. It made Keith giggle.

“We’ll come back next week and go on another day out. Anywhere you want to go in particular?” Adam asked. Keith was silent for a moment before shaking his head.

“No? You don’t mind?”

“I don’t mind at all. I just want to spend time with you both.” 

Adam turned their head to give Shiro an _ oh my gosh, did you hear that? _ look. Shiro gave him an  _ I did, and I’m going to start crying any moment now _ look in return. Thankfully Keith was gone by the time his eyes became noticeably watery.

The moment they were out of Saint Philomena’s, Shiro jumped into Adam’s arms and they spun around. Falling snow drifted down from the dark night sky and onto their heads in big, fluffy pieces. Inside the orphanage, someone was playing an old Christmas song and Adam was laughing their wonderful laugh. Shiro felt like he was in a snowglobe. 

  
  


Christmas was just around the corner and Shiro felt more excited than ever. The day the Garrison finally closed for winter break, he and Adam loaded their packed bags into the car and drove to their suburban home. It felt good to be home. Adam was amused by the strategic placing of mistletoe throughout the place- Shiro’s work, no doubt.

Besides the Christmas decorations, there was another change happening in the house. The spare bedroom no longer looked like an empty shell- it was starting to develop some personality. The twin-sized bed had red plaid sheets and a plush pillow shaped like a rocketship. Slowly but surely the dresser was being filled with clothes, with the bottom drawer being devoted to board games, jigsaw puzzles and craft supplies. Just like in his initial vision, Shiro had hunted down a road-pattern rug and bought five packs of glow in the dark stars. He was almost obsessive in checking they still could glow. Everything had to be perfect for Keith coming home to them on Christmas Eve.

Keith seemed quite oblivious to their plan. With Alice’s supervision the three of them went out on walks, to the cinema and, on Christmas Eve, they went to an observatory. 

Shiro and Adam stood back to watch Keith’s reaction as the observatory dome roof opened up, revealing a fantastic view of a clear night sky and the magnificent silver moon. Keith reached into his pocket and pulled out his moon rock. He turned back to them and asked, “You’ve really been up there?” 

“Yep.” Shiro stepped forward to stand with Keith, “I mined that piece of moon rock myself.” 

“More importantly,” Adam gently nudged Shiro’s arm, “It’s where we had our first date.”

“Do you think I could go someday?” 

“I don’t see why not. The Garrison does commercial flights to the moon all the time.” 

“Do you think that’s something you’d like to do in the future, Keith? Be an astronaut like Takashi?” Adam asked. Their voice was soft but Shiro knew exactly what they were hinting towards. If Keith decided to attend the Garrison he would feel so proud, but he would never pressure him into choosing that path.

Keith didn’t take his eyes off the moon as he replied, “Maybe. It sounds fun. But I also might want to be an artist- I like drawing.” He was still for a moment before his eyes widened slightly and he asked Shiro to hold his rock. With his hands now free, he started to dig through his trouser pockets. 

“I-I made something for you. For Christmas. Because I don’t know if Santa gives presents to adults.” He pulled a crumpled piece of paper out and unfolded it before handing it to Shiro. “I know it isn’t very good but I wanted to say thank you to you both. No one’s been as nice to be as you have. Not in ages.” 

Shiro very carefully inspected the piece of paper before handing it over to Adam. They looked at it with wide, starry eyes before scooping Keith up onto their shoulder. He squeaked and he yelped and then he started to laugh.

Adam held the piece of paper up high as if they were trying to show all the stars.

“This,” They cried out for the entire world to hear, “is incredible!”

Because on that piece of paper, Keith had made a fantastic drawing of the three of them. He’d perfectly captured Shiro’s goofy smile and the glint on Adam’s glasses. Between Adam and Shiro, holding their hands, there was a small smiling boy with a bandaid on his forehead and shaggy black hair. They were all standing on the surface of the grey moon, surrounded by fourteen beautiful stars. 

“This is going on the fridge when we get home. No, no, I want it framed. Oh, my heart.” Adam gushed. Shiro handed the moon rock back to Keith, who used the height of his new perch to raise it until it was in line with the heavenly silver moon in the sky. If Shiro had known how fond Keith would become of the thing, he would’ve given him both pieces.

Shiro pressed his head against Adam’s shoulder and let out a content sigh. He could feel his bottom lip wobbling. Was this the best thing he’d ever done? It probably was- and Keith didn’t even know anything about it.

“I bet we’ll be able to see Santa and his reindeer from up here,” Keith said. 

Shiro smiled at Adam and replied, “Oh, Adam and I have already seen Santa today.”

Keith almost fell from Adam’s shoulders. “You have? Did you talk to him? W-What did he say? Did he say I’ve been good?”

“The best! Santa’s been very impressed. So impressed that he asked Adam and me to help give you your present.”

The boy looked at Shiro with wide, anxious eyes and Adam lowered him from their shoulders.

“Wait...”

“Keith, do you want to join our family?”

And it was instant tears that quietly continued while they drove home. Alice had been waiting outside the observatory with a suitcase packed with Keith’s things. Adam had already filled out the first batch of papers earlier on in the day so they were good to go.

By the time they were home, it was already nine o’clock. Keith was utterly exhausted from their day out but insisted on spending some time standing out in the garden to see the golden lights that decorated the building exterior. Once he was satisfied, he and Adam prepared milk and cookies for Santa. Meanwhile, Shiro sorted out a toothbrush and pyjamas for their new... he stopped to look at himself in the bathroom mirror and asked himself:  _ Am I father now? _ He certainly didn’t think his twenties would entail adopting a moon-obsessed orphan but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Together Shiro and Adam tucked Keith into bed. He insisted on sleeping with his moon rock beside him.

“In the morning,” Adam started. They pushed a strand of Keith’s hair behind his ear, “Santa will have been and have delivered more presents. They’ll be underneath the tree, wrapped up with big sparkling bows and sprinkled with glitter.”

“I don’t need any more presents, I couldn’t ask for anything more than this.”

Keith already had his eyes shut. Instead of arguing that he was deserving of every single star in the sky, Adam pulled the sheets up to his chin and pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead. Then they moved away, allowing Shiro to kiss him goodnight too.

“Night, Adam, Takashi.” Keith sleepily whispered, his moon rock in his arms. Shiro stood in the doorway with a fond smile and flicked off the light.

A dozen plastic stars dimly illuminated Keith from his ceiling. And beyond the ceiling and the roof, there were millions of stars, a whole cosmos of them, all looking down at him fondly. In the centre of them all, there was the moon, who gazed at Keith with the same fierce love that Shiro and Adam did from the other end of his bedroom that Christmas Eve night.

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!
> 
> please leave a comment if you enjoyed! they motivate me to write more fics.
> 
> twitter: @adadshi


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